Yes, This Is Worth 7 Minutes And 26 Seconds Of Your Time

How many Executives have you worked with that you'd run through a wall for (click here)?

And if you got that far, here's another person who was in the same meeting (click here).

I remember my wife and I hosting a department Christmas party in 2001. About 2/3rds of the way through the party, my wife looks at me and says "My God, these people hate you."

Now, it was my job to fix a $300,000,000 annual net sales division that was losing $30,000,000 a year, so I wasn't there to be anybody's best friend. But clearly I had failed.

Maybe a third of you reading this are in the final few years of your career. You've had your chance to be "relatable". You know what it takes.

Maybe a third of you are in the first ten years of your career. I cannot stress enough the importance of building an emotional connection with those you support. Not a fake one. A real emotional connection.

I'm running pickleball ratings for my club this year. Maybe a quarter of our members absolutely detest what I've done (implement computer ratings instead of a rater with a clipboard determining your fate). But they don't hate me, they hate what I've done. So I guess that's progress.

It's really important for those you support to know that you care about them, you care about their development, and you care about linking them to success.